Power Apps Updates from July to August

As Power Apps continues to evolve, each month brings exciting new features and enhancements that make app development more intuitive and powerful. In this update, covering the latest from July to August, we’re thrilled to share some of the most impactful changes.

Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, these new capabilities are designed to streamline your workflow, improve performance, and expand what’s possible within Power Apps.

Here’s what’s new this month.

Comment-Generated Formulas Now Enabled by Default for New Apps

More makers can now leverage the power of Copilot to generate Power Fx formulas using natural language. In any new app, you can simply use the comment syntax (// or /*) to describe the formula you want. After a brief pause, Copilot will generate a formula based on your description. You can accept, reject, or refine the generated formula to meet your needs.

For existing apps, this feature can be enabled by navigating to Canvas Studio settings > Updates > Preview and toggling on “Copilot comment-generated formulas.”

Explore and Test Dataverse with the Web API Playground

The API Playground is now available as a pre-authenticated software testing tool, allowing makers to interact with the Microsoft Dataverse Web API quickly and securely. This web-based application simplifies the process of exploring API endpoints without requiring extensive setup or authentication. It’s a fantastic tool for experimenting with RESTful APIs, testing user-defined workflows, and more.

Key Features:

• Securely pre-authenticated: All API interactions occur within a secure and controlled platform environment, leveraging existing platform security features to ensure only authorized users can make API calls. No more third parties to rely on or worry about.

  
  

• Convenient web interface: Quickly interact with the Dataverse Web API without the need for extensive setup like software downloads or non-Microsoft account setup. You can access the tool from the Dataverse accelerator, a Microsoft app available in all new Dataverse environments and can be installed in any environment.

  
  

• Educational & user friendly: Presents the various actions and capabilities available in the Dataverse Web API, making it easy to quickly learn what’s possible and how to implement it. Implemented with adherence to Microsoft Coherence best practices + latest Fluent 2 alignment with first party maker portal standards.

New Analysis Engine Now Generally Available

While you edit or play your app in Studio, a continuous analysis of app elements and their interactions is happening in the background. This lets Studio determine the types of all the variables and collections in your app, maintain a real time dependency graph of relationships between different expressions, and keep track of what columns your app uses from every data source.

For example, if you change an expression like `Set(x, 5)` to `Set(x, {Lorem: “Ipsum”})`, the engine will recognize that `x` has changed from a number to a record, and any conflicting references will be flagged for your attention.

Directly Call SQL Server Procedures in Power Fx

Calling SQL Server stored procedures directly within Power Fx is now generally available across all regions! This enhancement eliminates the need to use a Power Automate Flow for stored procedures, streamlining the development process and improving performance for both app authors and end users. This feature further strengthens Power Apps’ support for SQL Server as a primary development platform.

Enhanced File Upload Experience in Power Pages

Microsoft Power Pages now supports file uploads up to 10GB, delivering a significantly improved experience for your end users. With Azure Blob Storage integration, you can enjoy larger file attachments, file size and upload progress indicators, and easy options for deleting and downloading files. Plus, error messages help ensure smooth uploads. For those needing more control, the web API offers full access to manage your attachments stored in Azure.

The latest Power Apps updates from July to August offer significant improvements that make app development more efficient and powerful. From Copilot's formula generation and the Dataverse API Playground to the New Analysis Engine and direct SQL Server procedure calls in Power Fx, these features enhance productivity and performance.

For more information on Microsoft Power Apps contact us at +27 (21) 205 3650, email us at info@allonline365.com or visit our website www.allonline365.com.